SketchUp
Dovetail & Finger Box Joints SketchUp — Parametric
Dovetail-Finger Wood joints for SketchUp include Pin Board, Tail Board, and Half Joints — fully parametric. Scale model does not change wood joints details. So you can use these models for any new projects without redrawing.
Dovetail & Finger Box Joint SketchUp — Usage
- Dovetail Wood Joints
- Finger BoxWood Joints
Type Of Dovetail Wood Joints:
- Through Pin Board
- Through Tail Board
- Half Pin Board.
Feature:
- Scale model does not change wood joints details.
- Open Component Option to control parameters.
- Change height, width, and thickness.
- Set the Angle of Dovetail Joints, set Angle =0 -->Finger Box Joints
- Number of mounts per side.
- Number of sides, left right or each side.
Why the joints keep their pitch when you scale:
- The pins and tails are driven by the LenX/LenY/LenZ of the parent component, not by raw geometry, so the joint count and finger pitch are recalculated on Redraw instead of being stretched. A plain (non-dynamic) dovetail block would distort the moment you scale it; this model rebuilds the spacing math instead.
- After you copy a finished joint, SketchUp keeps the original scale transform cached on the copy, so the parametric size silently reads wrong until a Redraw fires. This is exactly why you must run the Fix Scale tool (context-click > Dynamic Components > Redraw also works) before trusting the new dimensions — the Component Options panel can show the old numbers otherwise.
Flip the joint direction safely:
- Use Flip Along (right-click the component > Flip Along > Component’s Red / Green / Blue) to mirror the pin board into a tail board orientation. Flip Along mirrors about the component’s own axis and writes a negative scale factor rather than rewriting geometry, so it does not disturb the dynamic formulas — unlike using the Scale tool with a negative handle, which can leave a skew the model cannot read back.
- If the mirrored copy looks right but measures wrong, that is the cached-scale issue above — run Fix Scale to clear it.
When copy component use Fix Scale Tools to fix incorrect parameters. Using Flip Along to flip Joints direction. Drawing dovetail-finger wood joints manually in SketchUp takes a lot of time. The 3dshouse Dynamic plugin includes parametric wood joints that can be reused in any model. Dynamic Components remain a native, fully supported feature in SketchUp 2026, but authoring and editing the attribute formulas requires a SketchUp Pro subscription (SketchUp has been named-user subscription only since 2020).
More SketchUp tools by 3dshouse
- BevelUp — round or chamfer edges into real geometry, in one click
- Decimify — reduce the polygon count of a heavy model
- Tracepen — trace an image into SketchUp faces
- TileUp — turn a face into real 3D tiles, with a take-off
- Texturic — make seamless tile textures with PBR maps
- SheetUp — turn a SketchUp model into a bill of quantities and cost estimate
- PatchUp — turn selected edges into faces, flat or curved
